Filmmaker Roman Polanski blames disgraced Hollywood exec Harvey Weinstein for rape accusations against him.
He claimed the disgraced Hollywood mogul tried to brand him a “child rapist” to stop him winning an Oscar in 2003 for “The Pianist”. “Obviously I have no memory of it because it is false,” he told Paris Match magazine, before pouring scorn on her story.“I do not hit women,” he added. Polanski admitted the statutory rape of Geimer in a plea bargain in 1977 to avoid a trial on more serious charges.
The veteran film-maker caused outrage at the Venice film festival in August by comparing himself to the hero of his new film, Alfred Dreyfus, a Jewish officer wrongly persecuted by the French army at the turn of the 20th century.Polanski insisted that he was only speaking out now for the sake of his wife, French actress Emmanuelle Seigner, and his children.
“She and her family have suffered because of what I did, and despite me it continues,” he told Paris Match.